Management

Deborah L. Acklin
President and Chief Executive Officer

Deborah Acklin is president and chief executive officer of WQED Multimedia, the nation's first community-owned public media company, also known worldwide as "Mister Rogers' station".

Ms. Acklin has served in multiple executive roles in public broadcasting, the cable television industry, and commercial broadcasting. At WQED Multimedia, she manages or has managed the operations, strategies, and fundraising to create original multi-platform content distributed across four television channels, three radio channels, an interactive web-based global media distribution portal, an education department, and PBS, NPR and their member stations.

Her tenure includes many achievements, including an unprecedented three Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards for Station Excellence, given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to a general manager of a commercial or public television station in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey.

Having held several roles at WQED, Ms. Acklin returned to the company in 2002 after spending several years at the National Geographic Society where she was recruited to help launch the National Geographic Channel on cable and satellite television. In her role at National Geographic, Ms. Acklin produced more television hours than any other producer in the Society's long history.

Ms. Acklin also served as executive producer for The War That Made America, a four-hour, high-definition (HD), internationally-released docu-drama for PBS which focused on the French and Indian War. The War That Made America was broadcast in nearly 100 countries.

Ms. Acklin co-developed blockbuster music specials for PBS which to date have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for public television. She also oversaw production of WQED’s national documentaries for PBS, and has a long career in national and local journalism, public affairs programming, documentaries and magazine programs.

For public radio, Ms. Acklin guides WQED-FM 89.3, and its worldwide distribution on wqed.org and various web applications. WQED-FM is the producer, presenter and worldwide distributor of the internationally-acclaimed Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Radio Series, heard in more than 100 domestic markets and in 181 countries.

Darryl Ford Williams
Vice President of Content

Darryl Ford Williams is the Vice President of Content for WQED Multimedia responsible for television, radio, interactive & education. She oversees the creation, development, production and delivery of all new and existing local, national, international and syndicated programming on all media platforms for WQED.

Prior to her arrival at WQED in December of 2004, she was the sole proprietor of the 15-year-old Ford-Williams Agency. Based in Pittsburgh, which was one of the first companies in the nation to focus on minority recruiting for major market television stations. She was also a sought-after speaker on issues related to minorities in the broadcast industry.

She has extensive background as a television news producer and news manager including responsibilities as managing site producer for CBS News in its coverage of September 11 at the Pennsylvania crash site of United Flight 93; coordinating producer for ABCTV’s Good Morning America; executive producer at WJLA-TV in Washington, DC; and news producer at WBAL-TV in Baltimore and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

In addition to her broadcast career, Ms. Ford Williams developed, wrote, produced and directed media campaigns and visual communications for business, political, educational and philanthropic entities and was a noted production management consultant to broadcast groups and television network affiliates across the nation.

Ms. Ford Williams’ work was recognized with many awards throughout her career, including Emmy® Awards for The Combat Zone, produced for WJLA-TV in Washington, DC, WQED’s “On Q Special Report: RX for a Healthier Community” and numerous Emmy nominations. She has been honored by the Easter Seals Society, International Association of Business Communicators, and the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters.

Active in the community, she has served on such boards and committees as the Mayor’s Commission on Families; Urban Youth Action; the Pittsburgh Film Office; Pittsburgh Ballet Theater; Shady Side Academy; Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise, ASSET, Inc and she serves as an External Advisor to the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She is a member of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania; and the Pittsburgh chapters of Links, Inc. & Northeasterners. She is a graduate of Boston College with a BA/BS in Speech Arts.

Lilli Mosco
Vice President of Development and Membership

Lilli Mosco is Vice President of Development and Membership at WQED Multimedia, a position she has held since January 2000. She is responsible for WQED’s Membership Department; Development Department, which includes major, mid-level and planned giving, and the Foundations and Government Grants Department.

Under Ms. Mosco’s tenure, WQED instituted a series of affinity clubs, including the WQED History Club, WQED Cooks Club, and WQED Presents Club.

She also instituted The Producer’s Society, one of the system’s first mid-level giving programs to provide personalized service to mid-level donors and to bridge the gap between transactional and philanthropic giving.

The start of her career at WQED began in 1990 and she left in 1995 to become Manager of Individual Gifts for Magee Womens Hospital Health Foundation, and returned to WQED in 1997 to become Director of Development. Prior to WQED, she worked for the City of Pittsburgh in labor relations.

Ms. Mosco has been a presenter on various fundraising topics at several PBS Development Conferences and has served on the PBS Development Advisory Committee.